PadType Forever
- By
PadType
Current release: 0.1.21 Beta.
PadType is a radial on-screen keyboard that lets you type using a gamepad in WoW Forever Beta. When a supported text field has keyboard focus, the wheel appears so you can select letters, numbers, and symbols with your controller. It is designed for common chat, mail, and other text fields.
The wheel groups characters into eight sections, with a center circle for common actions and a separate Channel circle for chat shortcuts. You can adjust its size and background color, move it around the screen, and see which text field you are typing into through a connecting line.
This is the first addon I've created! I welcome feedback, bug reports, suggestions, and help making PadType better. If you run into a problem, please share what you were doing, your game version, your controller, and any error message. Advice and contributions from experienced addon developers are especially welcome.
Requirements and setup
- Built for WoW Forever Beta, client 1.60.1 / Interface 16001.
- Enable the game's native Gamepad UI.
- Extract the release ZIP into your game's
Interface/AddOns/folder so it containsPadType/PadType.toc, then enable PadType in the AddOns list. - Focus a supported text field to open the keyboard.
/padtypetoggles it for the currently focused text field.
Typing controls
Button names below use the Xbox-style labels shown by PadType.
| Control | Action |
|---|---|
| Left stick | Point toward one of the eight character groups. Return the stick to center to select the center actions. |
| Y | Choose the top character in the selected group. |
| B | Choose the right character in the selected group. |
| A | Choose the bottom character in the selected group. |
| X | Choose the left character in the selected group. |
| LB / RB | Cycle backward / forward through Letters, Numbers, Symbols, and the optional emote pages. |
| Left trigger | Hold for Shift; release to return to lowercase. |
| D-pad | Move the text cursor: left/right by character; up/down by text line (start/end in single-line fields). |
| Right stick | Reposition the keyboard, including while Settings is open. |
| Start / Menu | Open Settings. Press again to return to typing. |
| View / Back | Close the keyboard. |
With the left stick centered:
| Button | Action |
|---|---|
| A | Space |
| X | Backspace |
| Y | Enter; behavior depends on the focused text field. |
| B | Escape; behavior depends on the focused text field. |
Chat shortcuts
Hold the right trigger to activate the Channel circle, then press:
| Button | Inserted command |
|---|---|
| X | /s — Say |
| Y | /p — Party |
| B | /raid — Raid |
| A | /reply — Reply |
Release the right trigger to return to normal character selection. These shortcuts insert the command into the focused field; they do not send a message by themselves.
Settings
Press Start / Menu to open Settings. Character input is suspended while this menu is open.
| Control | Action |
|---|---|
| D-pad up / down | Select a setting or Reset to defaults. |
| D-pad left / right | Adjust the selected setting. Does not activate Reset to defaults. |
| A | Advance the selected setting, or activate Reset to defaults. |
| Start / Menu or B | Close Settings and return to the keyboard. |
| View / Back | Close the keyboard. |
Size ranges from 70% to 200%, in 10% steps. Background presets are Grey, Bronze, Blue, Green, Plum, and Black. Mouse controls and mouse dragging are also available.
| Setting | Default |
|---|---|
| Size | 100% |
| Background | Bronze |
| Button icons (wedges and Channel) | Black |
| Center icons | Colored |
| D-pad circle | On |
| Header | On |
| Footer | On |
| Emote pages | Off |
All eight settings persist across reloads. Existing saved choices are preserved when upgrading. Select Reset to defaults and press A, or click it, to restore the defaults above immediately. Start or B returns to the keyboard.
The header toggle also hides the PadType title. Hiding the D-pad circle keeps D-pad cursor controls active. Turning off emote pages removes them from page navigation. Each pressed wedge button briefly flashes the opposite icon style as feedback.
Emotes
Enable Emote pages in Settings to add Combat Commands and Interaction Emotes to LB/RB navigation. These contain 26 original-era animated, voiced emotes, with two choices per wedge. Press Y for the upper choice or A for the lower choice, or click an emote icon.
An emote performs immediately and closes PadType. No Enter press is required, and existing draft text is preserved. The current target is used when applicable. B/X and empty emote slots do nothing.
- Combat Commands (11): attacktarget, charge, flee, healme, helpme, incoming, oom, openfire, roar, taunt, wait.
- Interaction Emotes (15): applaud, beg, bye, cheer, chicken, congratulate, cry, hello, kiss, laugh, no, silly, thank, violin, welcome.
Animation, voice, and targeted behavior depend on the Beta client and character. Cursor up/down follows explicit line breaks, not visual word wrapping.
Known issues: auction house
PadType is currently disabled for auction-house text fields. Please use a physical keyboard for auction-house entry.
During testing, typing in the auction house could trigger a native gamepad protected-action error after searching and closing the auction-house window. The cause is still being investigated, so auction-house fields are excluded as a workaround. Chat and other supported text fields remain available.
Movement-stick setting changes are also temporarily disabled while investigating this issue, so your character may still move while you are typing. Text insertion currently uses an experimental approach to isolate the game's text-change callbacks.
PadType is an early beta prototype. Feedback on focus handling, controller behavior, and the auction-house issue—and help identifying a reliable fix—is very welcome.
PadType Forever Team
